TORONTO — Perhaps the Philadelphia 76ers [team stats] are on to something. Or maybe they're just back to their winning ways against bad teams.
For the second straight game, a player whom coach Doug Collins shuffled to a new part of the rotation had a big game, and the Sixers won their second straight game, 93-75, Wednesday night over the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.
A night after Spencer Hawes came off the bench for the first time all season and posted a season high in points, Nik Vucevic, thrown into the starting lineup Tuesday, got the Sixers going early and finished the game with 12 points and five rebounds. He was one of the reasons the Sixers dominated the scoring in the paint (58-18).
As much as the look of the team has changed with the new starters, the Sixers returned to looking more like the team that rolled out to such a fast start this season. They defended, shared the ball, rarely turned it over, and appeared to be happy out on the court with one another.
The win improved the Sixers to 31-27, while the Raptors fell to 20-39.
"It's time to start winning games," said Lou Williams, who was one of six players in double figures with 10 points. "Whenever you can put a streak together it feels good. Morale is up, the situation is what it is. We're just trying to make it the best that we can at this point and try to win as many in a row as we can."
Collins had said before Tuesday's game that three contests (Tuesday at New Jersey, Wednesday at Toronto, and Friday vs. New Jersey) would go a long way in defining his team. Whether he meant that it would make more clear their path to the playoffs or that losing one of those games would lead to a complete downfall wasn't clear, but they are now two-thirds of the way to completing what needs to be a sweep.
They put this one away with an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter that upped their advantage to 23 points.
"I thought Evan [Turner] came in and was fabulous in the fourth quarter ... and did a great job defensively," Collins said of his second-year guard, who finished with six points, six assists, and eight rebounds.
While change has been the norm of late for the Sixers, Thaddeus Young just continues to roll along. He led the team Wednesday with 17 points.
"I'm just trying to play hard, nothing major," Young said. "Everybody goes through a tough stretch where they just don't have it sometimes. I think that's what it probably was, just going through a tough stretch, tough road. It wasn't just me, I think it was the whole team.
"We were losing a lot of games throughout the process. Now it's just a case of going out there and doing what we know how to do as a team and just playing.
"Nothing changes with me. I just go out there, continue to play hard, continue to play with a lot of activity and energy."
The whole team did again in Toronto.
Elton Brand collected 11 points and eight rebounds, while Hawes and Andre Iguodala joined Williams with 10 points each.
(c)2012 the Philadelphia Daily News. Distributed by MCT Information Services
23/09/2008 - 0 Comments
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